de of het wetsvoorstel?
het wetsvoorstel
draft bill
noun · /ˈʋɛts.foːrˌstɛl/
It is “het wetsvoorstel”. The plural is “de wetsvoorstellen”, and like every Dutch plural it takes “de”.
Pronunciation, example sentences and the rest of the entry: wetsvoorstel
Forms
- Article
- het wetsvoorstel
- Plural
- de wetsvoorstellen
- Diminutive
- het wetsvoorstelletje
- How common
- in everyday Dutch
In a sentence
Het wetsvoorstel is ingediend.
The draft bill has been submitted.
Zij stemmen volgende week over het wetsvoorstel.
They will vote on the draft bill next week.
Dit wetsvoorstel kan problemen veroorzaken.
This draft bill could cause problems.
Why this article
No rule predicts it
This one has to be memorised. No spelling pattern marks it as neuter, which is exactly why it is worth learning as “het wetsvoorstel” rather than as “wetsvoorstel” on its own.
The rules that do work
- • Every plural takes “de”, without exception.
- • Every diminutive ending in -je takes “het”, without exception.
- • Nouns ending in -ing, -heid, -tie, -teit or -schap take “de”.
- • Roughly two thirds of all nouns take “de”, so it is the better guess.
Other nouns whose article has to be memorised
Stop guessing de and het
Woordje has a practice mode for exactly this: it shows a noun and asks for the article, and keeps asking until you stop getting it wrong.